How India’s warm embrace of Kamala Harris grew chilly

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NEW DELHI – When Sen. Kamala D. Harris joined the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket, Indian media were excited to detail her Indian ancestry. They traveled to her grandfather’s village and expounded upon her love for foods like idli, a savory rice cake.

Harris leaned into the identity. She made a masala dosa with actress and screenwriter Mindy Kaling in a viral 2019 video. A memoir published that year detailed her South Asian roots and upbringing. Television chef Padma Lakshmi cooked tamarind rice to celebrate her and the 2020 Democratic win.

But now, as Harris nears a presidential nomination, India seems to view her differently. While her identity may continue to excite the Indian diaspora in the United States, in the homeland observers are not only more muted on her connections but also uncertain about her strategic stance toward the subcontinent.

The initial “silly and irrational exuberance” saw a “dose of reality,” said Harsh V. Pant, visiting professor at King’s College London and vice president at Indian think tank the Observer Research Foundation. Things had changed, he said, and “it’s fair to say that there is no real warmth for her in India.”

Indian analysts point to several factors in this shift. One is a perceived lack of embrace of her Indian heritage by Harris. Another is a growing concern of Harris’ periodic comments on issues related to Indian democracy and human rights, ruffling feathers in India and pricking the warming ties between Washington and New Delhi.

It’s led to a feeling of “rejection” among Indian fans of Harris, Pant said. “That terminated the affair with Kamala Harris and India. She has to be seen as an American as opposed to an Indian-American,” he added.

Indians are also by now familiar with members of the diaspora in high offices abroad. Britain, Ireland and Portugal have now all had prime ministers with Indian lineage in recent years. In the United States, there were two candidates from the diaspora – Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy – in the Republican presidential primaries this year.

Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor at the University of California Riverside and the founder of AAPI Data, said the novelty was wearing off.

“At least in terms of the media, I think there’s less – and maybe even in society – less of a curiosity element,” he said.

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Idli politics

Harris was raised by her Chennai-born mother after her mother and her Jamaican-born father divorced when she was seven. Her maternal grandfather was formerly a government civil servant and freedom fighter in India.

Harris’ multiracial upbringing involved “a strong awareness of and appreciation for Indian culture,” she wrote in her 2019 memoir. Still, her early politicization revolved around being Black in America, including growing up in Oakland during the Black Power movement and studying at Howard University.

Harris wrote that her mother “knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.”

When asked in a 2009 interview by Indian diaspora magazine India Abroad, republished by CNN, about other politicians who have distanced themselves from their Indian heritage, Harris responded that “we have to see that most people exist through a prism and they are a sum of many factors.”

Since becoming vice president, Harris made several nods to her Indian roots. In 2022, she hosted the White House’s largest-ever annual Diwali celebration, in addition to a smaller gathering to commemorate the Hindu festival of lights at her private residence.

But for some Indians, it wasn’t enough. Indrani Bagchi, a foreign policy commentator and head of think tank Ananta Centre, argued that Harris has “deliberately downplayed” her Indian roots. Some note that as vice president, Harris spent a week in Ghana but did not visit India at all.

Dinsha Mistree, a U.S.-India relations expert at the Hoover Institution and a Stanford professor, said it may be that Harris won’t see her Indian identity as “politically advantageous” at the moment.

“Given the states that she needs to win and given the number of Indian voters, do I think that that’s something she should play up over the next hundred days? Probably not,” Mistree said.

Indian government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid said the rise of politicians of Indian origin has garnered much attention in India but that it has not immediately equated to any special favorableness to the country.

“Whether Harris likes idlis for breakfast may be noteworthy, but it is of little consequence in explaining her political trajectory,” Raja Mohan, director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, wrote in the Indian Express.

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Little role in U.S.-India relationship, so far

Indian officials and strategic experts say Harris has played little role in the growing geopolitical relationship between India and the United States, leaving it to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“Harris hasn’t moved any mountains on the India relationship,” Bagchi said. “When she did make comments on India, they were comments – forget friendly – I don’t think they were comments that took into account where India stood on issues.”

In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration removed a special autonomy given to the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir – a long-standing plank of his party. On its heels, the government sent Kashmir into a severe lockdown and internet shutdown, arresting hundreds of politicians and activists.

Asked about the events more than a month later in Texas while on the campaign trail, Harris responded sympathetically, stating that Kashmiris needed to be reminded that “we are all watching.”

Later that year, India’s external affairs minister abruptly canceled a meeting with senior Congress members after U.S. lawmakers refused to exclude congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, one of the most vocal critics of Indian policy, from the meeting. Harris shared a message on social media in Jayapal’s defense.

Her actions were a contrast to the Republican administration then in office. Just a few months later – as riots erupted in Delhi in response to a new citizenship law – President Donald Trump made an official grand visit to the city.

The India Today television channel brought up Harris’ Kashmir comments Tuesday, displaying the banner: “Harris and Modi: It’s Complicated.”

Harris, much like Biden, may shift her tone if she gains the White House. Before his presidency, Biden had also published a policy paper calling for India to take the steps needed to “restore rights” for Kashmir. But in office, Biden has taken a far more cautious stance.

There have been rough patches in the U.S.-India relationship. Last year, U.S. authorities thwarted an attempted assassination plot against a U.S. citizen in New York. The Washington Post later revealed that an Indian officer in the country’s spy agency gave instructions for the operation.

But overall, India has found itself in a geopolitical sweet spot, with the United States looking for friends in Asia as tensions with China rise.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla, former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to Washington, said that regardless of who wins in November, India’s position is secure. “For India, it’s a win-win either way.”